The Scott Expedition

Distance

Ben and Tarka will cover 1800 miles starting from Scott's Terra Nova Hut at the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back to the coast again. That's equivalent to 69 back-to-back marathons hauling up to 200kg each (the weight of roughly two adult men) of kit and supplies necessary to survive.

This continent seems to be throwing everything it has at us in our final few days. Today we slogged away under heavy cloud cover again, luckily with a sliver of horizon that - as you can see in the photo - gave us a glimpse of Black Island and made navigating relatively easy, though that was the extent of our view for ten hours on foot. The contrast was too poor for us to see the snow surface and the mess of small ridges and sastrugi underfoot, and it felt at times like we were trying to cross a frozen ploughed field on rollerskates. I fell over hard twice, and even Tarka (who lives in the Alps, whose mother is a ski instructor, and who I believe had his first pair of ski boots fitted shortly after his umbilical cord was cut) stacked it badly this afternoon. We laughed at each other when we slipped over three months ago, but now we're like two frail old men, living in fear of fracturing something in a fall at the eleventh hour of this Goliath trek.

Despite our proximity to the finish line, our sheer exhaustion seems to be standing in the way of us getting excited just yet, and lying in the tent in the evening getting psyched-up for another day of the same after too little sleep is never easy. Tarka's pep talk this evening contained one of his best lines yet: "Mate, we've gone a hundred and two rounds with Antarctica and we've won every one of them. Tomorrow we're going to win round one hundred and three."

That's all for now, as I desperately need some sleep! We plan to do a "normal" day of 38-40km tomorrow and then a jumbo last day on Wednesday 5th, with about 30km before picking up our first depot, where we'll pick up one day's food, pitch the tent, scoff it all, sleep for an hour or so and then carry on for roughly 25km to the shore of Ross Island. Watch this space...

Having worn the same kit as Scott in Antarctica and carried out a small expedition a few years ago, your trip is of epic proportions.
Good luck for the last few days…..I expect you are dreaming of food and sleeping in a bed !
You really are nearly there…..finish it for the memory of Scott and his men !
Bon voyage…..Perhaps see you again in Richmond Park.
James

I’ve been following your progress reports from the every beginning, admiringly, and with wonder. Having read all I could find about Scott and Shackleton’s expeditions, I’m quite amazed at the exploit (you may have better equipment and knowledge than the first explorers, Antarctica remains the most inhospitable place on earth), and very glad to be able to read your field notes. It’s a bit late to comment about it, but I’ve been moved to tears by what you wrote about Scott on day 99. Although he may be seen by some people as a failure, his personal courage, the way he bared his heart in his journals make him very special. Retracing his footsteps, and sharing it with us as you do, in spite of all that Antarctica is throwing at you, is a great gift for which I will just say “thank you”.

only a few more days… It is quite amusing to see you guys pass by several of the waypoints from your trip out as you take on this final leg of the journey. I think it is also incredible that you have all of this data that you are collecting and keeping for reference once you get home :) I am truly blessed to have discovered this project a week before you took off from Chile.

You two are winning round after round and I’m sure will win the last two too. Absolute pleasure to track you throughout the expedition, but still something in me wants more; like a video coverage of the last hour in high definition, bird-eye view from a helicopter annoyingly flyover your head, while a heavy metal band warming up the shore.
In all seriousness, is there anyone at the finish-line waiting for you?
You certainly deserve a celebratory greeting at the end. Speaking of which, here is my favorite in recent years: Diana Nyad at the end her 53 hr swim from Cuba to Florida: http://bit.ly/LKmulT

Hi Ben and Tarka,
your performance is great and more than incredible. Thank you for your courage and how you have clearly showed how the real polar expedition should look like (using of best available technologies, but at the same time there is a form of return to the roots).
What can we expect from you for the next time? Unsupported crossing of Antarctica as Shackleton had planned it? (but hopefully you will not need to sail the boat to South Georgia :-)

It might be round one hundred and three but not out for the count , despite all that’s being thrown at you.
As for those last few miles, in the words of Blackadder ‘Sounds like a cunning plan.’
Stay safe and keep aiming for that little black marker.

Stay safe and be careful during your last few days of this epic trip. I imagine, as said before, helicopters looking for first sight of you and following you to Discovery point - but that’s note you style

Its often said, ” the longest mile is the last mile home “. I can equate it to driving home with a few miles to go and struggling to keep eyes open and stay awake. You don’t have the choice of pulling into a layby for forty winks, you just have to keep pulling and I know you will.
I will miss my daily fix of reading of your inner strength , courage and determination. , and Tarks, I know Boogie and Katie, whoops, Katie and Boogie will be pleased to have you home as we all will.
As always,
Much love form Sue, and a woof from Noodle

Ben and Tarka - as many have said, an inspirational and fantastic achievement! Your experiences, so well relayed via this blog, have given us real insight into what Scott and his men must have struggled against 100 years or so ago.
Two questions arise in my mind from your latest blog, which perhaps someone else might be able to answer if you are too hard pressed:
1. Do we understand why White Island remains covered by snow whilst Black Island evidently doesn’t?
2. Will this web site continue to provide information on your subsequent activities, lecture tours etc, once the great adventure is over?

Good questions, Dave. Regarding #2, I fear we’ve become Ben and Tarka addicts. We had John Evans of the first team to scale Mount Vinson on our Antarctic cruise in December. He was terrific, and I can imagine that both Ben and Tarka would be hugely popular focal points in a similar role someday in the future.

@kiwawa I realise your question wasn’t for me ... Strange but I was just listening to Jon and Vangelis’ I’ll Find My Way Home (I know the lyrics are supposed to have religious meaning) but I think music is what you personally feel and read.
Apart from the beautiful music which for me when I close my eyes, is spurring B&T onwards, many of the lyrics seem somewhat appropriate for these last moments.

The building that Douglas Mawson had built for radio contact with his expedition still stands on the site where it was built over one hundred years ago, it is being looked after and still in use by the local Amateur Radio Group. “By May 1912 the Hobart wireless station was in working order, ‘which greatly facilitated wireless business,’ Sawyer wrote.”

” Then on 8 February (1913) came a second signal from Antarctica – an intercepted message from Cape Denison to Aurora asking that the ship return to collect the rest of the party as Mawson had returned but Ninnis and Mertz were dead. The Macquarie party was shocked at the news, wrote Ainsworth – compounded the next day when news came from Australia of the loss of Robert Scott’s South Pole party. “

I, along with much of the rest of the news-following world, was introduced to the story of the Mawson Expedition when the Akademik Shokalskiy became icebound. Antarctica is much in the news as of late.

Ben & Tarka,
Once again I want to thank you for taking us with you on this epic journey. From your daily logs we feel like we watched you pull that sled, we heard the squeaky snow, we sat inside that crowded tent, we watched you dig snow and melt it to make water, and we saw you sitting on your sleds taking each well deserved break. And it wasn’t like reading a book because we knew it was happening in the present.

While you are walking in this vast foreign land we are living ordinary lives clearing the snow off from our cars, shoveling snow off the driveway and going to work. Each reader is living their own “adventure” while reading about a real one happening in Antarctica. Thanks for the inspiration and the effort it took to bring us along with you. Be well on these last few days. Enjoy!

I’m continually astonished not only by the hard work you’re putting in for 100+ days in the most terrible conditions, but that you somehow find the wherewithal to write something here for us each day. We all thank you for giving us this touchstone, and hope that, in your more leisure days to come, you’ll have the chance to read all our comments and know how grateful we are that you’re sharing even a tiny bit of your experience with us. The next couple of days will be awful and glorious, and you’ll be in our thoughts every step of the way. Safe journey, be well.

Suffering, Round by round. The history is being written and made with each of your posts. As you stare the beast down, we push you on in the only ways we can from afar. This journey, alas, only you can finish. Keep going. Keep going.

It’s been a delight to read your daily blogs and watch your incredible journey. The end is in sight. Please take care and be safe during the final kilometers. You’re almost there! Scott would be most proud.

As of this morning this merry band of followers have amassed a fantastic 4000 blog posts over the last 102 days.
A growing community spread over many countries coming together for one purpose – come on boys not long now!!!

Mssr Cashew… you surely mean “4000 comments on your blog posts” don’t you? —Ben does the post, we do the comments (although some of them are long enough to have been a post if they had been published to their own web site).

We are Year 2 from St Peter’s School in York. We have been doing a topic called ‘To Boldly Go…’ and we think you are a perfect example of going boldly! We have read all about Captain Scott and we think it’s great you are following his route. Our school theme this term is ‘Endurance’ and it makes us feel that we want to be like you.
You have travelled so far. You are doing ashtonishingly well. Keep it up and we hope you keep very safe. We are SO excited that you are nearly there!
love from
2H and 2S

Often I’ve quietly read these comments, thinking yes! perfectly put!...thinking I’ve got nothing to add to the well-felt well-thought thoughts of others. Maybe occasionally I get a little over-excited about those fabulous ginger-beards, or a little emotional as I do when I think of B & T’s suffering or safety…Or when I’m reminded of the incredible story of Scott, Wilson, Evans, Bowers and Oates. For those of us whose imaginations are captured by Antarctica, by Scott, Shackleton, Mawson, the Northern Party and all their men, (and the modern explorers, adventurers and scientists!) this expedition has been incredibly illuminating. I know from these blog posts and comments that I’m not the only one who is very touched by this expedition. Ben, your writing is heartfelt, clear and evocative (and frequently hilarious). Thank-you both Ben and Tarka, for your vision, and no-doubt prodigious thighs…and to your support team and sponsors AND to the crazy crazy technology which allows you to share all this with us.

I’m not a believer, but I want to wish you Godspeed. It seems the right word to use in this circumstance. Be safe, stay sound. We’re all with you with best thoughts and wishes.

63 miles of skiing to go, 63 miles to go,
You ski some more, make tracks in the snow,
62 miles of skiing to go.
62 miles of skiing to go, 62 miles to go,
You ski some more, make tracks in the snow,
61 miles of skiing to go….

Dear Ben and Tarka,

Wednesday looks to be another epic 18+ hours kind of day. It would be fun if Google kept track of how many clicks on Antarctica and following the Scott Expedition took place. Hint….

Not necessarily that I am concerned, rather , I am quite interested in knowing - you carry an instrument which gauges altitude, does it have a horizontal range it calculates this for? When I look at Google Earth I can see that ice thickness varies. How thick does ice need to be in order to have a safe passage?

Best of luck as your body wavers and kerplunkity glides across the icescape….
Stay strong. Stay safe.

Wonderful job and I can’t wait to see pics from the finish line, I hope someone will make a film of you two coming into the last kilometer of your journey including passing the Gate of Glory at the very finish line. If I was there I would be jumping there as a small kid yelling some catchwords of joy :-D

Enjoy your last kilometres even thought these are tough - you will certainly have many memories.

Andy, I’m sorry you aren’t able to be there to meet them when they finish. But, alas, I guess you’ve still got to handle all the logistics so they can return safely home. Thank you for being an integral member of this awesome team.

Just adding to a comment I made yesterday in which I said that ending the expedition at Scott Base would seem most appropriate, I came across this from my novel, which reminded me of what a special place Scott Base is (as opposed to my view of McMurdo Station).

Birdie, by the way, is the main female protagonist.

“[Scott Base] has the touch and scent of being alive. It has a sense of history, and not just in the photos that line every wall, the age-worn noticeboards and the skuffed skirting boards. There have been adventures here. People have left from here and never returned. People have met here, and fallen in love or formed friendships for life. It breathes.

She’s sitting in the lounge, under a lamp that’s always on. It throws a yellow light over her face, colours her hair even brighter, even spikier, soaks into her cheekbones, her every tiny feature. The lounge, full of books and comfortable chairs, faces south, and the light is always on to guide Scott, Bowers, Wilson, Oates and Evans home. Birdie under the light is a guardian angel, the presence that could bring them back safely. What will we find of them when we get out to Cape Evans, where they left from, and never returned? Will there be anything tangible of them there, something to hold on to and carry with us until we, too, are lost?”

And thus, Ben and Tarka, and we, the watchers, too, will be lost somewhere in time, somewhere in the future. But the legend will persist, the legend of fact, a legend into which Ben and Tarka will have walked when their journey ends at the end of this week.

Not long to go now would be a mission complete after all that hard work. Bet you are looking forward to a nice warm home with a toilet and all needs. Will be able to have a lovely hot tea and see your family and rest at last.

“A lovely hot tea”...Yes! Does anyone else recall that wonderful picture of Wilson, Birdie and Cherry after the horrors of the winter journey, that journey which beggared the imagination…Wilson staring full forward; Birdie just finished blowing to cool his tea, like it was any other work-day; and Cherry, poor Cherry, thick chunk of buttered bread, three more loaded and ready to eat on his plate, looking like he’d seen one or more of the rings of hell. Heroes all!

I too will miss my daily dose of vicarious suffering, thank you both.
I imagine that you will be reflecting on Tom Crean’s astounding 37 mile solo walk to Hut Point, to get help for the moribund Lieutenant Evans, what a boy; though I am sure you would do it if you had to.

Hi Guys. I hope you both slept well and are totally refreshed for this new day. Non of us can have any idea the level of exhaustion you guys are experiencing! I wish I could do something , anything to help! All I can say is that the world is watching your every moment as you come to the end of an amazing journey. Keep your sites on your loved ones and all the reasons you planned this remarkable journey.We are all praying for your journeys end and a safe journey home. Take care, Keep Going and Gods Speed! Kev

OMG. I am without technology for 6 days and you are suddenly very close to achieving your dreams. How totally mind-bogglingly phenomenal. I wonder what the first thing you will do is when back in civilisation? I wonder if it will be hard to be to integrate with other people having just been the two of you for so long? I wonder whether you want to finish this trip quietly or even if that will be possible with the McMurdo base right there? So many questions: both serious and very silly, so hurry back to safety, eat, sleep and come back to the UK soon please!

One hundred and two rounds behind you & 63.8 miles left to before you, impeccable & inspirational, scathed & starved yet unbeaten & humble- qualities of the great explorers you both undoubtedly are. Proving that the unobtainable extremes can be met (but by no means Conquered) with measure and the application of grit. There are few alive who’s footsteps have strode your path and none that ever were that equal . Far from over is the psychological distance afore you within the ‘final push’yet so close are the rewards of your near immeasurable labour.
If ever we meet i would be honoured to make for you a roast dinner of such proportion as to match your calorific loss you have given in the name of exploration!

Andy… since we now know that you are still behind your desk, I wonder if you might do all of us “watchers” a HUGE favor and ask them to turn up the frequency of their transmitted trackpoints, not for the whole duration but at least for that “last slog of about 25 km” after their final “cat nap.” I figure you set the “hourly” ping because you you were worried about power consumption and batteries; but, they seem strong now and that would give a more “real time” and actual “break-the-ribbon” aspect to it. If you could afford a setting of every 10 minutes you’d probably stand a much better chance of actually catching the trackpoint which documents the end of the journey (I feel bad about not reminding you to do the same thing at the South Pole - but there was other issues there as we know.)

DJ, My Google Earth-reading skills are rudimentary. Where is the “exact” location of Ben and Tarka: are they where I see your tent icon, or is it the red “pin” that’s a few miles back? Thank you for clarifying.

@Heidi… the Antarctica Resource File is not “real time” - it relies on the published data from the expedition. It is also hand-crafted - meaning not automated like the expeditions. Therefore, at any one moment you may see pointers move, or lag behind which usually means I’m working on that file at that moment and refreshing your map a moment later may cause the icons to flip into position.

All that said, as you can see, the Resource Map goes much beyond what the expedition’s map is set up to do - they’ve got other things on their mind. Our Google Earth file tries to be as up to date as it can be (but I’ve got to sleep some time) but it not definitively current. If you want to see timings, descriptions of where they are, speed/direction/location calculations, comparison maps of other explorers, web cams, south pole station maps, satellite ice sheet images, and tons of labels on geological places that Google Earth doesn’t show—- well, this is your file.

This isn’t the first expedition that we’ve followed with resource maps and we’ve decided that once this expedition is completed we’ll make a permanent map out of it and place it on our web server for all to see and reference.

What a friendship. We can only glimpse in the desciption of your journey your hardships , and can only continue to wish you the very best in the last few days. We know someone who will be very pleased and relieved to have you safely home..

Good luck with the final stretch, i’ve really enjoyed following your adventure and think that you have shown us that it’s not all about the final result but in the journey itself. You have demonstrated that no matter how tough it’s going to be any journey is both easier and more enjoyable with solid teamwork, friendship and total respect for each other. Well done guys.

What you will have accomplished in the next few days is short of amazing. I am curious though. What advice would you give to a much younger Ben (let’s says 103 days younger) at the beginning of his journey?